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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Surname Saturday - Hodson

Hodson

Nicholas Hodson AKA Hodsdon first appears in the
records of Hingham, Massachusetts when he was granted a house lot in 1636. About 1639 he married Esther Wines, who was
a cousin of a Charlestown, Massachusetts resident with the fantastic Puritan name
of “Faintnot Wines” (don’t you love it!).
Faintnot Wines left legacies to Esther’s five living children in his
will in 1664. Esther is possibly a
daughter of Thomas Wincoll and Ann Fleming?

About 1650 Nicholas Hodson and other families left
Hingham for Cambridge Hill, which is now the city of Newton,
Massachusetts. By 1656 he was living in
Kittery, Maine. The first record where
he appeared in Maine was in 1655 when he was absent from a meeting. In 1659 he and several others were ordered to
Boston for entertaining Quakers. It is
interesting that my other ancestors Anthony Emery and Richard Nason were also
among those ordered to Boston .

There is a deed for his homestead, which was passed
on to his son Benoni, and then to grandson Timothy, dated 17 May 1828 which
notes “Reserving and
excepting from this conveyance one eighth of an acre on the homestead first
above mentioned, which has been heretofore used as a place of burial by our
ancestors.” This may be where Nicholas
Hodson and his wife Elizabeth are buried. There was a man named Nicholas Hodson
killed by Indians in 1704, but I don’t know if he is the same man, or a
relative.

The Hodson Genealogy:

Generation
1: Nicholas Hodson, born in England,
died in Wells, Maine; married first about 1639 to Esther Wines, who died on 29 November 1647 in Hingham,
Massachusetts; married second to Elizabeth Wincoll, daughter of John Wincoll
and Elizabeth Unknown, also widow of John Needham. Six children by first wife, and six more by
second wife.

1. Esther Hodson, born 20 September 1640 (see
below)

2.
Mehitable Hodson, born November 1641, married Peter Welcome

3.
Jeremiah Hodson, born 6 September 1643, married Anne Thwaits

4.
Israel Hodson, born before 19 July 1646; married Ann Thompson

5.
Elizabeth Hodson, born before 19 July 1646, probably died young

6. Benoni Hodson, born before 29 November 1647;
married Abigail Curtis

7. Sarah Hodson, married John Morrell

8.
Timothy Hodson, married Hannah Unknown, who married second Joseph Smith

9.
John Hodson, married Rebecca Unknown

10.
Joseph Hodson, married Tabitha Raynes

11.
Lucy Hodson, married George Vickers

12.
Hannah Hodson, married Nicholas Smith

Generation
2: Esther Hodson, born 20 September 1640
in Hingham, Massachusetts, died 11 March 1723 in Kittery, Maine; married on 25
December 1663 in Dover, New Hampshire to Edward Weymouth. Six children.

It is difficult to follow the Hodson descendants,
since the name changed spelling so many times.
The most usual spellings are HODSON, HODSDON, HODSDEN, HOGDSON, or even HODGDON but other variations can be found in the Maine
and New Hampshire vital records and probate.
Town histories have been very helpful in helping me trace this line,
such as Old Eliot by Willis, page 146 – 147, and Old Kittery and Her Families
by Everett Stackpole, page 123 and also pages 529-530 (available to read online
at Google Books).

There is a book from 1904 named Genealogy of the Descendants of
Nicholas Hodsdon-Hodgdon of Hingham, Mass and Kittery, Maine 1635 – 1904
by Andrew Jackson Hodgdon, available to read online at www.archive.org (Library of Congress) and at www.openlibrary.org

There is a short sketch of Nicholas Hodson in the
book A Tenth Generation Yankee from Maine by Nettie Gove
Nicholson. There is also a sketch in The
Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England by Savage,
Volume II, page 440. See also TheGenealogical
Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, by Davis, Libbey and Noyes, on
page 343.

I wonder if the name Hodson, et al, wasn't already connected to the Quakers before they came here, or at least Quaker-friendly. My greatgrandmother was a Hodson, from a strongly (stridently!) Quaker family and over the years I have found other Hodson lines and the one thing they have in common (not counting variant name spellings) is that they were all either Quaker or involved with Quaker groups.

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About Me

Author of the Nutfield Genealogy blog and occasional genealogy speaker. My family research includes Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, with a smattering of Nova Scotia. Please contact me if you see your ancestors on this blog. I would love to share information. I am the former secretary of the New Hampshire Mayflower Society, former President of the Londonderry Historical Society, member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the Mass. Society of Genealogists, The National Genealogical Society, and the New Hampshire Society of Genealogists.